East Row: Newburyport
Newburyport, Massachusetts

Stifter and Baum, Architects

1973-74 (unbuilt)

East Row is an amalgam of attached buildings dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It occupies a major place in downtown Newburyport on Market Square, with direct access to the town’s historical waterfront. The 40,000 square feet of space was unoccupied since the 1960s. The various structures of masonry, concrete and steel had accreted over the years and had seen commercial and manufacutring uses, even as a small automobile factory.

The developer client asked for a proposal for reusing the buildings within a very competitve cost framework. The street facades were to be kept intact and upgraded to current standards, preserving the architectural character on the area. The interior of the complex, the site of many ad hoc additions and interventions over the years, suggested a strategy of adding value by subtraction. Removing deficient construction down to the ‘bones’ allowed a new circulation system, a new entrance to the site, and above all, new uses appropriate to the time. No new enclosed space is added.

Thanks to a second level floor of reinforced concrete and large steel trusses, an exterior gallery giving access to offices on that level and to 16 apartments (5 lofts) above became possible. The ground floor became commercial. The adjacent semi-detached interiror structure was planned as a restaurant and café, using the small plaza that linked Water Street to the ‘new’ internal multi-level ‘street.’

The East Row development was one of the first adaptive reuse projects recognized by the prestigious Progressive Architecture Design Awards program.